A Strong Start for Clark County WA's Real Estate in January 2016!
Starting the new year with a very low inventory level combined with un-met demand, Clark County's Real Estate market turned in very strong results for January.
- Average-Sales Prices are still strongly up, with the 12-month/long-term trend line up 8.3% compared to the prior year, and the 3-Month Moving Average is up 10.7% from the same time last year;
- The Inventory for Resale Homes has again been reduced, and is now at 1.2-Months Supply (1.3 last month);
- Approximately 392 Resale Homes were sold in January 2016, which is about 29 (+8.0%) more homes than in January 2015.
- REO/Bank Owned property sales were 22 units (7.5% of total); down from 38 (10.5%) in 2015.
- Short Sale /Pre-Foreclosure property sales were 11 units (2.8% of total); down from 23 (6.3%) in 2015.
The January 2016 30-year-fixed home loan benchmark interest rate increased to 3.87% (from 3.96% last month) according to Freddie Mac; compared to 3.67% for January 2015. Average home loan rates are now lower than when the Federal Reserve raised interest rates slightly!
Next up we have our custom-prepared charts for Clark County WA. Using RMLS data we apply "smoothing" techniques to better present the short-term trend (3-month moving average in Red); and long-term trend (12-month moving average in Blue).
Clark County Home Sales - Units Sold Trend December 2015
With such an increased level of unit sales for the year; resulting in a relative shortage of inventory, it is no wonder that the 3-month trend-line has barely pierced the 12-month trend-line - usually the 3-month line can be found well below the 12-month line by this time.
It has made the news recently that neighboring Portland, Oregon was top in the nation for an average increase of home rental prices - about 12%. With such a rapid and large increase, we dare speculate that a significant component of the increase in Clark County Home sales has been spurred by this phenomenon.
Clark County Home Sales - Average Sales Price Trend December 2015
The next chart above shows Average Home Sales Price for Clark County, with the short-term (3-months in Red) line pointing to the seasonal easing of prices.
Right now the 3-month line is just over $1,000 above the 12-month line -- when last year at this time the 3-month line was about $5,000 below the 12-month line. It seems reasonably clear with the low-inventory, that the average sales price has tremendous support at this time.
Clark County Home Sales Inventory & Days on Market in December 2015
These last three charts above come from the RMLS statistical package.
The initial chart shows how New Listings and Pending Listings have moved upward in lock-step fashion.
The next chart shows that New Listings that have been coaxed into the market are trying to push the average upward quite a bit, when compared to the previous 3 months for this element..
The final chart shows the Average/Median Days-On-Market -- the past 3 winter-time months look like a more "Normal Market" in the summer-time!
More information from RMLS on the Clark County real estate scene has been posted here: RMLS Market Action Report on our website.
PS - You are invited to visit Real Estate in Clark County WA where it is Very Easy to search by City, Neighborhood or by Category, with homes and real estate listings from the entire RMLS. Sign-up Not Required! The property and home listings shown are provided via many updates each day, and you will be e-mailed hourly with any new matches once you've signed up for a home search.
These are the MLS Listings for these great towns in Clark County: Battle Ground WA Homes | Brush Prairie WA Homes | Camas WA Homes | Hockinson WA Homes | La Center WA Homes | Ridgefield WA Homes | Vancouver WA Homes | Washougal WA Homes | Yacolt WA Homes | Amboy WA Homes
PPS - We have been very busy of late updating our website with a replacement listing display program. With the improved capabilities we are pleased to be able to add new neighborhood pages including these: Pioneer Canyon and Taverner Ridge in Ridgefield; Southcliff, Dubois Park and Father Blanchet Park in Vancouver; as some early examples. Please check them out and let us known what you think!
The charts in this Clark County WA real estate update (prepared by Vancouver Real Estate Broker, John Slocum, CRS, SFR, our resident statistician) are based on home sales recorded in the Clark County WA MLS system (RMLS), excluding sales of mobile home; and shows the purchase activity since 2009; charting the 3 month Moving average number of sales, and the 12 month Moving average. This "smoothing" of the trend-data helps illustrate the short-term and longer term trends in Clark County's real estate market.
Disclaimer: as with any real estate statistics, we do our best to provide the best representation at the time the data was acquired and compiled. The data and reports are deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
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